LETTER: St. Joseph School will survive

As an active parent involved at St. Joseph School in Kingston, I am concerned that our community may be getting the wrong message delivered by the Archdiocese of New York regarding Catholic schools at risk of being closed at the end of school year.

Rumors are running rampant about our eventual closing. Based on facts and statistics, this is far from the truth.

The unfortunate truth is that the Archdiocese has based their decision to include us on their list this time around on information that is more than two years old. When we were somewhat legitimately placed on this list two years ago, they asked us to meet specific benchmarks in order to determine the school's future. The administration, faculty, parents and community rallied and met every one of those benchmarks and actually exceeded expectations. But they have neglected to recognize these achievements before making this current determination about our school.

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These are the facts:

St. Joseph School has increased enrollment by more than 30 percent. We are academically beyond what is considered acceptable, according to Archdiocese and state standards, and we have never accepted or sought financial assistance from the Archdiocese in the 100 years of our existence.

St. Joe's is basically self-sustained with the support of its parish. No other Catholic school in this area can make that claim. The Archdiocese's reasoning for their regionalization plan, based on demographics, for the future of Catholic education is to provide every Catholic child access to a Catholic school. But how do they justify placing the school with the ability to house the most students, over 500, on the "at risk" list? It is a fact that St. Joe's is the only school in our area that will be able to comfortably accommodate families seeking Catholic or private school education for their children, yet the Archdiocese does not even know this because they have not visited any of the schools!

I would hate to see any school close, but times dictate that change is necessary. Once the process of review based on the facts and statistics is completed, there can be no doubt that St. Joseph School is the only logical choice to continue to provide a private school education to our children for years to come. If this does not happen, I would suggest to every concerned Catholic and parent in general that the decision will be based on less than the truth. Come visit our school and see for yourself.